as lawmakers take us right up to that fiscal cliff. this evening, three days to go before taxes go up for all americans. will the president's pressure on congress bring in a deal? let's bring in jon karl on this. jon, are they any closer? >> a little closer, but they are certainly not there yet. tonight, congressional leaders are making one last-ditch effort to keep most americans from waking up to a big tax like on new year's day. with just three days left, finally a glimmer of hope. >> i'm hopeful and optimistic. >> whatever we come up with it's going to be imperfect. some people aren't going to a like it. >> reporter: right now, it's all in the hands of the two senate leaders. democratic harry reid and republican mitch mcconnell. they're working on a mini-deal that would prevent a tax increase for roughly 98% of american workers. extend unemployment benefits that are set to expire for some 2 million people. and prevent a huge cut in payments to medicare doctors. what took so long? >> the american people are watching what we do here.